Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA.
Med Teach. 2013;35(1):53-7. doi: 10.3109/0142159X.2012.731099. Epub 2012 Oct 26.
Psychostimulants have a high abuse potential and are appealing to college students for enhancing their examination performance.
This study was designed to examine the prevalence of psychostimulant drug abuse among medical students and to test the hypothesis that medical students who use psychostimulant drugs for non-medical reasons are characterized by a sensation seeking and aggressive-hostility personality and exhibit lower empathy.
The Zuckerman-Kuhlman personality questionnaire and the Jefferson scale of empathy were completed anonymously on-line by 321 medical students in 2010-2011 academic year.
A total of 45 students (14%) reported that they had abused psychostimulant medications either before or during medical school. RESULTS of multivariate analysis of variance provided support for one of our research hypothesis: students who reported using psychostimulant compared to the rest, obtained a significantly higher average score on the aggressive-hostility personality factor. No other significant differences were observed.
Further research is needed to confirm the rate of psychostimulant drug abusers among medical students in other medical schools. In particular, it is desirable to examine if such psychostimulant drug abusers are likely to abuse other substances in medical school and later in their professional career.
精神兴奋剂具有很高的滥用潜力，对大学生来说，它们具有增强考试表现的吸引力。
本研究旨在调查医学生中精神兴奋剂药物滥用的流行情况，并检验以下假设，即出于非医疗原因使用精神兴奋剂药物的医学生具有寻求刺激和攻击性-敌意人格特征，表现出较低的同理心。
2010-2011 学年，321 名医学生匿名在线完成了 Zuckerman-Kuhlman 人格问卷和杰斐逊同理心量表。
共有 45 名学生（14%）报告说，他们在医学院之前或期间滥用过精神兴奋剂药物。方差分析的多变量分析结果支持我们的一个研究假设：与其他学生相比，报告使用精神兴奋剂的学生在攻击性-敌意人格因素上的平均得分明显更高。没有观察到其他显著差异。
需要进一步的研究来证实其他医学院医学生中精神兴奋剂药物滥用者的比例。特别是，有必要研究这些精神兴奋剂药物滥用者是否有可能在医学院和以后的职业生涯中滥用其他物质。
